“What happened, then?” I asked. “Why did the investigation stop? Lincoln was obviously never arrested.”
Anita took a bite of her burger, checked her phone, then leveled her gaze at me. “Lincoln Masters showed his true colors, that’s what happened.”
“Sounds dirty,” Nate said.
“Very,” Anita said, her eyes darkening. “Douglas made a bit of headway with his superiors and got one of them to authorize bringing in a specialized pathologist to work on the blood samples and try to trace it to Lincoln’s factory. The guy had great credentials and did some contract stuff. Douglas even paid to have the guy fly in from out of the country.” She rested an elbow on the table and smirked. “At that point, Lincoln had sold the original plant and purchased a state-of-the-art facility. Anyway, it didn’t take long for Douglas to realize he’d stepped in shit. You see, some of the people Lincoln was now hobnobbing with were connected to the force. The police commissioner, the mayor—everyone who was high up. One of them must have mentioned the case when they were around Lincoln.
“First thing that happened? The pathologist Douglas brought in vanished. The guy wasgone.” Anita snapped her fingers for emphasis. “Didn’t even pack up his hotel room. Clothes were still everywhere. Same thing happened to one of the lawyers Douglas was working with.
“Then came the big splash,” she continued. “Lincoln had a little boy. Kid was maybe three? He’d knocked up that model I was telling you about. Both shifters, by the way, and he’d been spotted arguing with her after a party one night. Maybe the stress of knowing the cops were on his tail had him drawn tight. That night? The model does a swan dive off the balcony of her penthouse suite.Boom.” She smacked her palm on the table, making me flinch.
“Oh my God.” I gasped, putting my hand to my mouth.
“Yeah. Of course, Lincoln had an ironclad alibi and witnesses saying he wasn’t there. After the fight, he’d gone to have drinkswith friends at a club. Plus, our lovely victim had a shit-ton of heroin in her system. So much that, had she not hit the pavement, she’d have been dead, anyway.”
The backs of my eyes stung. The more I heard, the more the Masters men sounded like demons. Evil men, with no morals other than to watch out for themselves. From what I’d seen, Rick was just like his father.
“After that week of disasters, Lincoln up and moves away. Took his little bundle of joy up north and joined the Toronto-Ottawa pack. After that? Crime goes down, the mayor looks good, no one wants to do much. Douglas gets told to shut it down and leave it alone. Most likely, a few of Lincoln’s rich friends pulled some strings. To tell the truth, I’m surprised Douglas survived at all, much less kept his job.”
Glancing over at Nate, I wondered what my life might have been like with Rick. Rich, powerful, and glamorous, but fucking miserable. An image flashed through my mind. Us having a fight and him throwing me off the top of a building, my arms pinwheeling as the pavement rushed up to meet me.
I’d been on the wrong path; that was obvious now. Looking at Nate, I thought maybe I’d found the right path. Now, I had to hope and pray that fate would allow me to follow it.
42
Nate
Anita glanced at her watch, then pushed her plate aside. “I’ve got to head out and get back to work. I’ve told you everything I know. Most of that has been passed along to Ollie as well.”
“We understand,” I said, my head spinning from the information she’d given us. “We don’t want to take any more of your time.”
Anita reached forward, extending a hand to each of us to shake. “It was nice meeting you. Between me and you? I hope we nail this fucker.” She shot a wary glance in Cameron’s direction. “Ollie told me you were a journalist. If you use anything I said, please?—”
“I’ll keep your name confidential,” Cameron said with a nod.
Anita’s shoulders sagged. “Thank you. I have a son to think about. I can’t afford any blowback. Not from a psycho like Lincoln Masters.” She glanced at Cameron. “I’m running a background check on this guy who attacked you in the garage. I should have it for you in the next hour or two.”
“Thank you,” Cameron said.
Anita waved at us as she left. Cam and I sat in silence for several minutes, decompressing. Everything about it was crazy, yet it made sense in a weird way. Being able to control a feral like Lenny would have been impossible withoutsomethingto tempt, entice, or bind him with. A drug addiction was probably one of the only things on earth that could do that. The desperation and bone-deep need for another hit would have been enough to keep the madness of ferality at bay to complete whatever orders Rick gave out.
Christ, it was sickening. Imagining the hell Lenny Nash had gone through made my stomach twist and flip.
“Do you think we can trust her?” I asked, pushing my plate away. I’d barely touched my food.
Cameron craned her neck and looked out the window, watching Anita climb into her car and drive away. “I think so.”
“Seems trustworthy. My bullshit detector didn’t go off once.”
Cameron ran a hand through her hair. “True. Everything sounded matter-of-fact. I didn’t get the feeling she was acting or trying to lead us down a dead end.”
“Right. I guess we take what she gave us and run with it.”
“Yeah. Let’s get out of here,” Cameron said. “I’m exhausted and want to get settled into a hotel.”
“Good idea,” I agreed.
After paying for the meal and getting in the car, I turned to look at her. A malevolent rage coursed through me.
